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Tire Treads Twist into Braids and Knots in Kim Dacres’ Celebratory Busts of Black Girls — Colossal

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Artwork

#hair
#Kim Dacres
#sculpture
#tires

July 24, 2023

Grace Ebert

A female bust made of tires with long braids that trail along a wooden pedestal

“Hope” (2022), recycled motorbike and bicycle tires, wooden, screws, braided bicycle interior tubes, zip ties, and spray paint, 27 x 15 x 14 inches. Picture by Max Yawney. All pictures © Kim Dacres, shared with permission

Artist Kim Dacres prefers supplies with historical past, these with scars from the world and the place, because the saying goes, the rubber meets the street. She molds used tires from bikes, bikes, and automobiles into figurative sculptures which can be celebratory and corrective, honoring the Black girls who’ve influenced her and addressing the challenges many have confronted. “Used relentlessly till they’re deemed damaged or superfluous, discarded with out thought or care— the place others see waste, Dacres sees risk,” says an announcement about her transformation of the fabric. “And with that imaginative and prescient comes a profound resiliency, solace, and in the end pleasure.”

Portraying topics each actual and imagined, a lot of Dacres’ most up-to-date works think about questions of self-expression and presentation. Coated in smooth, black spray paint and weighing, at instances, upwards of 90 kilos, the sculptures characteristic pure hairstyles like braids, dreads, and Bantu knots that, in white areas, have traditionally been questioned for his or her respectability and professionalism.

 

Tire Treads Twist into Braids and Knots in Kim Dacres’ Celebratory Busts of Black Girls — Colossal

“Sheryl” (2022), recycled auto tires, motorbike tires, bicycle tires, bicycle tire tubes, zip ties, bike components, screws, wooden, and spray paint, 26.5 x 11 x 14 inches. Images by Max Yawney

Dacres first used tires in 2008 for her undergraduate senior thesis present at Williams School. She spent the following decade in training, working as a trainer, center faculty principal, and professor, and in 2017, she returned to the fabric and her follow.

Her most up-to-date exhibition Measure Me in Rotations, held earlier this summer time at Charles Moffett Gallery in New York, introduced collectively a collection of works that reference the scholars she met within the classroom and people in her communities in Harlem and the Bronx, the place she lives and works, respectively. Emphasizing the ability of hair to claim one’s id, Dacres makes use of the distinctive tread, texture, sample, and malleability of the tires to kind particular person traits. Clean, interior tubing peeks by the knots in “Bintou,” whereas strips of sliced rubber cascade down the determine’s head in “Britt.”

An earlier work, titled “Hope,” is a main instance of Dacres’ need to attract metaphoric parallels between the fabric and the topic. Referencing the histories of the Nice Migration and Caribbean and African immigration that introduced many Black folks north, the determine seems to each scream and mouth the phrase “hope.” She explains:

Hope, partially, conjures up the voluntary migration away from household, pals, and familiarity and in the direction of the novelty of place and the messiness of acculturation. The sensation instigates the momentum. We transfer for hope. We plan with hope in thoughts. Hope is the sensation of the longer term. The fabric embodies the concept of journey and in the end, the friction wanted to propel ahead and away from residence.

Dacres has a two-person exhibition with artist April Bey (beforehand) slated for June 2024 at UTA Artist House in Atlanta. She was additionally not too long ago featured within the books Black American Portraits and Black Energy Kitchen. Discover extra of her work on her web site and Instagram.

 

The backside of a bust showing neat braids made of bicycle tires

“Hope” (2022), recycled motorbike and bicycle tires, wooden, screws, braided bicycle interior tubes, zip ties, and spray paint, 27 x 15 x 14 inches. Picture by Max Yawney

An up-close view of braids made from sleek black bike tires

Element of “Sheryl” (2022), recycled auto tires, motorbike tires, bicycle tires, bicycle tire tubes, zip ties, bike components, screws, wooden, and spray paint, 26.5 x 11 x 14 inches. Picture by Max Yawney

A bust of a woman with three knots at the top of her head and hair dangling down in back. The sculpture is made of bike tires and has no face

“Britt” (2023), recycled auto, motorbike, electrical skateboard, and bicycle tires, pressure-treated wooden, building screws, and black satin spray paint mounted on a purple oak plinth, 69 × 13 × 13 inches. Picture by Max Yawney

Two images, both of a female bust made of black bike tires. On the left is a slanted view of the face, on the right is a side view showing long dreads dangling down the wooden pedestal

“Natty Dread II” (2022), recycled auto and bicycle tires, wooden, screws, bicycle components, and spray paint, 37 x 9 x 17 inches. Images by Max Yawney

A female bust with knots in her hair and no face

“Bintou” (2023), recycled auto, motorbike, electrical skateboard, and bicycle tires, pressure-treated wooden, building screws, MDF, and black satin spray paint mounted on ambrosia maple plinth, 55 × 14 × 14 inches. Picture by Max Yawney

Two images, both of a female busts made of bike tires, on the left is a front facial view and on the right is a side view

“Enid” (2022), recycled auto and bicycle tires, wooden, screws, and spray paint, 27 x 13 x 12.5 inches. Images by Max Yawney

Two sculptures stand in a gallery, both figures appear to have rollers in their hair and have round, tire bodies

Left: “Anita” (2023), recycled auto, motorbike, electrical skateboard, and bicycle tires, pressure-treated wooden, building screws, and black satin spray paint, mounted on pressure-treated wooden base, 52 x 16.5 x 24.5 inches. Proper: “Phyllis” (2023), recycled auto, motorbike, electrical skateboard, and bicycle tires, pressure-treated wooden, building screws, and black satin spray paint, mounted on pressure-treated wooden base, 54.5 x 16.5 x 24.5 inches. Picture by Tom Barratt and Charles Moffett Gallery

#hair
#Kim Dacres
#sculpture
#tires

 

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